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CMU does special favors for athletes. Quick Someone Call the Ann Arbor News!!!

Nice article on Espn from Mark Schlabach, detailing how CMU and Dan Levour are going to prepare for their game versus Georgia this week.

In the article Schlabach tails Levour for the entire week. He follows him to his classes, the first one he mentions is this:

"Tuesday, 11 a.m., Billiards Class

LeFevour takes his position near a pool table in the Student Athletic Center, which is known as "SAC" on the CMU campus. For the next 45 minutes, LeFevour practices breaking balls on the felt-covered table. The class is taught by a graduate assistant coach on the school's softball team. She carries a textbook entitled "Precision Pool," apparently teaching as she learns."

So apparently CMU not only has classes designed for football players to take, not only are they not taught by real professors, but by other people in the athletic department, who are learning as they go along, Who wants to bet that normal students are allowed to take this class?

How you feel about academic integrity now. Of course if the Ann Arbor News had this on Umich it would take 4 days of front page news, when other schools do it, it's mainly filler information in a fluff piece.

Basically the whole summer the Ann Arbor News held us hostage saying it was going to bomb the Michigan Programs, however it was things that not only occur at big time programs such as Michigan, but small time as well!!

To be fair, the article also mentions him taking a Yoga class and says that he is on track to graduate in interpersonal communication, you know instead of just personal communication, which I geuss is just communication with yourself or extraterrestial comminication. I don't know how Yoga and Billiards help you get there, but I digress.

"I took all that algebra and calculus when I was a freshman," LeFevour said.

As a math teacher and former engineering grad, I find this dubious. For two reasons, for his major it is doubtful that he needed calculus even with the focus in insurance. Very few people take calculus for fun. Second, if he did take algebra in college, which is quite possible , he would at least have to take some other classes such as trignometry, or geometry before he could even attempt calculus. Possibly, he took stats.

Again, I'm not belittling Lefour or CMU just pointing out the double standard. How one media source's fluff, is another's hard hitting atom bomb news.

Good luck to CMU with their game on Saturday, and I wish Lefour was in the maize in blue.

Utah : Why Was Sheridan in the game?

I don't understand why Sheridan was in the game at all. He may be quicker with his feet, and grasp the offense better, but neither of the qb's are threats with their feet to keep the defenses offense. He also threw several balls up in the air for grabs, which would have been unacceptable under Carr and should be under coach Rod. He may grasp the offense better but still made horrible decisions with the ball and under pressure.

Not that Threet was the best thing in the world, he held the ball too long, stared down receivers, and overthrew receivers, hey John Navarre reincarnated!! but he made the defense honest down the field, which might open up some running game, I say might because the offensive line was pretty horrid.

The defense was Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekll. Hyde in the first as in cover your eyes bad and Jekll in the secpnd as a dominant performance. The new defensive coordinator did a poor job of preparation but made the adjustments at half, which was a nice change, so looking up there.

Their kicker was phenomenal on punts and the 53 yarder fg even though KC Lopata countered with his own 50 yarder ( where did that come from? ) . But they won the field position battle and with our offense being so poor in made a difference. This may be me being optimistic but we blocked two kicks today, so hopefully, Umich is putting more emphasis on special teams.

I can't help but think that Utah committed 3 turnovers had a punt and xp blocked and committed 150+ of penalties and we still lost. However, I also can't help but think what would have happened with Threet in the game the whole time, I think Utah doesnt get their last td of the first half and its a whole different ballgame, with us winning.

Lots of disappointment today, but something to look forward next week. PLease Coach Rod , Sheridan may be a great practice player, buts he's not much in the game

2008 Game By Game Predictions

As I think about the new season, this is the first time in about15 years where I'm unsure of the certain wins and losses. I feel this may the only year that we could go 6-6, or 9-3. Here are my opinions.

Utah-Ute fans and writers of the Mountain West have been talking as if Utah loses this game it will be an upset, I'm perplexed by a team whose 5 best listed player is a kicker. However, objectively we have a lot going for us. PLayers wanting to show how much they improved to the fans, the emotion of the first game For RichRod. I know people will be anxious coming in that game, but at least fans will be showing some emotion, which can lead to joy, cheering, unlike most Michigan crowds where it sometimes its like the fans are going to work. We win by double digits. 1-0

Miami, OH- Don't have much to say, we win its closer than it should be but talent prevails. 2-0


@ND - I don't see us losing this game. Rich Rod hates hates to lose and the fact that extreme commander Weis brought attention to himself and Michigan probably didnt do him any favors. Clausen may go down has the most overrated QB ever. Their line is still bad, and our defense still dominates. Its a really close game, comes down to a turnover/ and or FG. We squeek it out. 3-0

Wisco- Here's where our inexperienced QB and offensive line kills us. Wisco's line dominates our offensive line, which leads to some bad decisions by the qb. Our defense performs admirably, but can't overcome the offense. Wisco gets some short fields , and plays field position on us most of the game, we lose by 10 to 13. 3-1

Illinois- One of the coin flip games. We get them at home. Rich Rod outcoaches Zook by a wide margin. I'm not too high on Illinois this year, but this game could go either way. Hopefully injuries for us don't come into play and we are starting to get some solid quarterbacking play. Close game, possibly overtime. Home field is the difference we win barely 4-1

Toeldo- Talent, coaching, no matter what Brady Houk says. 3 td spread. 5-1

@PSU- 430 semi night game. Penn State is content to play defense , which dominates our offesne. However Penn States vanilla offense lets us stay close, but Penn State will win in a game closer than it should be. 5-2

MSU- MSU annual game of the century, is in the Big house this year. Dantonio is a decent coach but really needs to stop putting all his eggs in the UofM basket. He can't expect to win more than 1 in 3, and he's going to get himself fired. Another of the toss up games, I think MSU wins because their defense contains our run game and we've been beating MSU with the passing game, specifically deep and we don't have the qb to do that. Its close, but East Lansing burns their couches in joy tonight and we here it for the next 4 years. 5-3

@Purdue- Talent, Scheme, no surprises since the defense has seen the same offense the last 4 years and in practice every day. Rich Rod takes revenge for the idiotic Snakeoil comments about Rich Rod's "stealing" of Roundree, who is going to redshirt probably. Yet managed to steal a committ from MSU miraculously without the snakeoil. Rich is not amused. Painter is considered an elite NFL prospect what? Kiper needs to stop using the hair gel. 6-3

@Minnesota- Minnesota will be cover your eyes bad. It's closer than it should be as the qb's get used to playing in the dome. But we win going away. 7-3

Northwestern- Home, similar offense, Our defense dominates because its not surprising to anyone in the michigan defense. Rich Rod out coaches Fitgerald not that he needs to. We win by 2 or more td's on senior day.

@OSU- Riight, so how many starters of ours would start for OSU? Um....Trent, and Warren maybe Jamison, Johnson, Zolton. Yeah 5 out of 24 isn't good. This is the one game RichRod won't have a sizable coaching advantage in. We had a good offensive line last year compared to this and couldnt do anything, we break off a run to keep it from being a shutout, but other than that, Tressel doesn't go for 2 or 3 for that matter and is a gentlemen in victory, but its not close. 8-4.


8-4 seems Alamo Bowl ish to me, but I'm not predicting a bowl game win or loss. 8-4 is pretty good for rebuilding. Especially with many teams licking their chops to get back at Michigan over the years. Penn State, MSU get their licks in but most don't.

My biggest complain about the Carr Regime was that A we don't fool anyone, and B players don't get any better in their four years. RichRod solves both problems this year and it's enough to be 8-4.

TV times/ Estimates

UTAH: Announced ABC Regional Coverage 330

MIAMI OH: Announced ESPN or ESPN 2 National Coverage Noon

@Notre Dame: Annoucned NBC National Coverage 330

Wisconsin : Estimate ABC Regional coverage 330; No 330 game for the Big -10 has been announced. However Illinois at PSU is at 8. So the othre options for ABC are MSU @ IND and Minny @ OSU. So we probably get the regional nod here

Illinois: Announced ABC 330 Regional Coverage

Toledo: Estimate National Coverage Big Ten Network Noon: ABC will probably go with Purdue at OSU for the 330 Regional Coverage. While PSU @ Wisco is a night game. So we're relegated to the BTN or ESPN2

@Penn State: Annoucned ESPN or ESPN2 430 National Coverage

MSU : Estimate 330 ABC Regional Coveage. All other Big 10 games have been annoucned with no 330 game. So by process of elimination. Things could change if MSU and Umich are combined 0-12

@Purdue: Estimate NOOn ESPN National coverage; This is the hardest to estimate. There's no OSU game. So the other options for ABC are Wisco @ MSU, and Iowa @ Illinois. Depending on Purdue's record and assuming they aren't undefeated I think they go with Iowa @ Illinois. Leaving us on ESPN or ESPN2.

@MINNESOTA: Estimate Noon or One BTN Natiional Coverage. Minnesota will be horrible. However the Central Time zone problem as well as that this is probably the least marketable Big Ten game of the week. This also might be one of those ESPN Classic games

Northwestern: Estimate Noon I'm geussing ESPN2 Or the BTN. No way this gets ABC coverage I'm thinking this is 3rd or 4th choice. So The deuce or BTN.

OSU: Estimate ABC National Coverage. Pretty easy. Only question is whether its a 330 or Noon game. I'll assume we have a couple losses and make it a Noon. Allowing ABC to make it a doubleheader with MSU @ PSU

Weis: What does it say you do here again?

The more physical attack will come under a new play-caller. Weis, who helped guide the New England Patriots to three Super Bowls, has turned the play-calling duties over to Haywood."

quote from Tom Coyne Assosicated Press

Um...big departure from the man who according to the national media (NBC) announcers invented football, came up with the West Coast Offense, cured cancer, and invented the modern forward pass.

Since i'm sure Weis spends no time with the defense, what does weis do. Hand over his playbook after implementing his offesne in practice , which any guy who can dissect the NFL can give you. Well at least he's good with the media and doesn't put his foot in his mouth. Oh wait to hell with michigan. At least he inspirational. Um ok maybe not.

So the guy who led the New England offesne to 3 Super Bowls can't even be counted on to beat Navy? Maybe like all of Notre Dame the hype outweighs production and don't tell anybody but Bill Belichek is pretty good and New England has been better (offensively) since he left.

However with Notre Dame will rebound with 8-9 wins because of Cupcake rich schedule and Weis will be considered a genius for putting aside his ego to let his offensive coordinator take over and everyone dies a little inside once more.

I find it hilarious that his reputation was built on be ing the offensive coordinator for a team that knew which plays were coming in the 2nd half. And insists on spending inordinate amounts of time installing one time offenses for one game isntead of working out the the Mundane details such as blocking.

That is not a mundane detail Charlie!!!

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